Instant Pot Mongolian Beef

Asian inspired Instant Pot Mongolian Beef, slightly sweet, a tad bit salty, juicy and flavorful. Easy “dump and push start” recipe.

Here is another one of my “Take-Out” Chinese Food recipes that is super easy to make using your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker. The flavors are intensified from the infused highly flavorful sauce.

Mongolian Beef is really a Chinese American dish. The name comes from Mongolian Barbecue and is not Mongolian cuisine. It’s only slightly sweet with a bit of a salty undertone. With my recipe, you can use various cuts of meat depending on your budget, preference and grocery store sale!

Mongolian beef is sort of similar to Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli I supposed. The flavor profile is different, but if I have to make a comparison, that would be it.

Ingredients for Instant Pot Mongolian Beef

• Sweet/Black Soy Sauce
• Hoisin Sauce
• Fresh Garlic and Fresh Ginger Root
• Dark Soy Sauce
• Dried Chili Peppers
• Shaoxing Wine

Sweet/Black Soy Sauce  is a thick sweet syrup, much like molasses with a bit of a salty taste. It is used in Asian cooking. I use it in many recipes and I strongly suggest you grab a bottle and keep it in your fridge. It is even good to use as a condiment over rice, Beef and Vegetable Fried Rice, Instant Pot Cabbage and Sausage, my Instant Pot Egg Roll Bowls and more.

If you don’t have dark soy sauce, which is twice as salty as regular soy sauce, go a head and salt and pepper your meat. Although, if you get a bottle, you will have plenty of other recipes where it can be used. Check out my Pressure Cooker Chinese Take-Out General Tso’s Chicken recipe!

Is there a Substitute for Sweet/Black Soy Sauce?

• Well, yes, I suppose, but the flavor won’t be near as great as the real thing.
• Try mixing molasses or brown sugar and a teaspoon of soy sauce together to form a thickly pouring liquid.
• It will be more cloying, but in a pinch, you can make do.

Pro Tip:  Invest in a bottle Sweet/Black Soy Sauce. It adds a nice depth of flavor and just the right amount of saltiness, without going overboard.

Why Dredge with Potato Starch

Potato starch is a wonderful way to ensure that your meat says nice and juicy during pressure cooking.

When using the pressure cooker, more liquid than normal is needed, so the sauce often times needs to be thickened. With my method, the starch on the meat adheres to the meat nicely and allows the pot to come up to pressure with the little amount of liquid in the pot. As the release of the potato starch is slow, you will not get a burn notice.

As the meat cooks and releases liquid, it also releases the starch and therefore thickens the sauce without gumming up.

Potato Starch is used in Asian cooking and is gluten free. I prefer to either an Asian Potato Starch or Bob Mills, rather than flour, as I love the flavor it gives when coating meat and shrimp. If you don’t have any, go a head and use cornstarch.

Best of all, with the nice and thickened sauce, you don’t have to worry about making a starch slurry after pressure cooking.

Pro Tip: Coating beef, pork of chicken with potato starch before cooking under pressure, ensures extra juicy meat. It also saves you the step of having to make a slurry to thicken the liquid in the pot.

For whisking up the luscious sauce, I like to use a measuring cup. As you will need to measure ingredients, this is perfect for mixing up marinades and sauces. My favorite whisk to use is this Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk. It is something that every kitchen shouldn’t be without.

Besides measuring cups, whisks and other kitchen essentials, there are several ingredients which are always in my kitchen.

Kitchen Ingredients On Hand

• The flavors of the hoisin sauce, black soy, ginger and garlic make such a nice and flavorful sauce. The sweet with the salty is wonderful on the tongue. Those ingredients are always in my refrigerator!
• Chinese Shaoxing Wine is another ingredient which you should have as a staple in your refrigerator. It is wonderful to use for deglazing the pot in so many recipes. The flavor it adds is amazing. For recipes calling for a good drinking sherry to deglaze or just cook with, the Shaoxing can be used in place. They both do the same thing and the flavor is almost the same, but Shoxing is considerable less expensive.

I use Shaoxing in at least 100 of my recipes. It is why my Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff (Pressure Cooker) was voted best in class. Just kidding, but it is a very popular recipe, which people seem to choose over overs. Shaoxing is used in my Instant Pot Salisbury Steak which is another incredible recipe. So you see, it is not just for Asian recipes!

Freezer Meal Prep

• Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef is perfect for freezer and make a head meals. While you won’t be able to use the potato starch method, all you will need to do is dump everything into the pot and cook. You’ll make a slurry after cooking.
• What I like to do is buy flank steak, chuck roast, sirloin, whichever meat I see on sale and then slice it up thin. For some recipes like my Pressure Cooker Balsamic Ginger Chicken, I will use my my FoodSaver Vacuum System and package it up with the marinade. For other recipes like this Mongolia beef, I will pack some up with just slices of the beef and others with the marinade already included.

While I prefer to use the potato starch method, there are times when I come home and just want to toss the frozen recipe ingredients right into the pressure cooker and go change and do stuff around the house.

All I have to do is pop it out of the freezer and cook it frozen. No worries!

You will just need these two accessories. A our long legged stainless steel trivet and one pan from this Ekovana Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker Stackable Pans Set.

Perfectly cooked pot in pot rice, cooked at the same time as your main course.

Scallions from our garden. They should be cut in one inch long slices, on the diagonal.

Remove the red peppers, if desired. I only use a couple as I can’t take the heat any more. Others will add extra.

Why Add Sesame Oil After Cooking?

• Sesame oil is not a high index oil. It can taste spoiled, rancid and odd after cooking.
• Plus, even with a short cook time, the flavor of the sesame oil will be lost so better to use it after you have finished cooking.

Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef with Rice will satisfy all your “Take-Out” needs. 🙂

Pressure Cooker Ghee Rice is really delicious too! Broccoli would be nice in this recipe as well.

If you don’t want to cook your rice with the Pressure Cooker Mongolian Beef, you can make it in a separate pot, using this recipe, Pressure Cooker White Rice. Alternatively, if you are cooking for a crowd and need a larger portion of rice, using the “Pot In Pot” method, try my Pressure Cooker Perfectly Cooked Pot In Pot Rice.

More Asian Instant Pot Recipes to Make:

• One Pot Pressure Cooker Chinese Orange Pepper Chicken & Rice
• Pressure Cooker Chinese Take-Out Spicy Orange Beef
• Pressure Cooker Asian Style Chinese Boiled Peanuts
• Instant Pot Chinese Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce + Video

Kitchen Equipment and Essentials

• Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
• J.A. Henckels Classic 8 inch Chef’s Knife
• Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
• Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
• Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
• Rösle Stainless Steel Flat Whisk– a MUST have, probably my most used utensil
• Cilio Olivewood Spatula
• Rachael Ray Stoneware EVOO Oil Dispensing Bottle
• Porcelain & Bamboo Salt Box with Spoon
• My FANTASTIC Teak Cutting & Charcuterie Board & Compartments
• Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker stainless steel flat bottomed insert pans
• Stainless Steel Tall/Short Trivet & Egg Cooker Set

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